The evening world. Newspaper, May 6, 1922, Page 9

\ ‘ City College of New York Old-Timers, Now Prominent Men, Recall Lively Pranks And Historic Episodes Of Student Days College, Started With 143, Now Has Nearly 19,000 Undergraduates, Largest Enro lment in U.S. By Victor H, Lawn, Copyright, 1929 (New York Evening World) by Press Publishing Oe. EREMONIES next week com- memorating the seventy-Afth anniversary of the City Col- lege of New York have made mally of the “old-timers” reminis- Ant. Their stories, told with the chuckle and the shake of the head that accompany “those were the happy days’? mood, reveal that when some of the leading citizens of to-day they were boys invariably were college boys, with a vengeance. Probably the most picturesque ep!- fode, and one expected to set hearts laughing under austeré, judicial robes, is the good-sized scrap that resulted when the freshman class of 1880 de- elded to defy the sophmores of 1879 and wear high hats and canes, It was a grand old fight, those who saw {t declare, when the husky freshmen, in a Macedonian phalanx, marched by Steinway Hall in the fall of 1876 where the Junior Exhibition was being held. According to eye-witnesses, the first to repel the onrush of the among sophomores who resented this viola- tion of college etiquette were **Mulk’’ and ‘‘Nob."’ The former is now bet- ter known as Joseph F. Judge in the Court of General Ses- Mulqueen, sions, and the latter Henry G. J. Noble, now a Governor and during the war President of the New York Stock Exchange. They had a noble allies Harry W. Mack, George Samler Da- vis, now President of Hunter College, and Roswell B. Burchard, Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island. former Among the sophomores who retreated from lith Street and across the fields at 18th Street and Third Avenue was the subsequent Senator and Supreme Court Justice James A. O'Gorman. Those who are said to have cheered the loudest from the sidelines as the battle swung to and fro were Marcus M. hattan and father of the daylight- Marks, former President of Man- ®aving idea, and Samuel Untermyer. Supreme Court Justice Vernon M. Davis, although he was graduated the year before, is said to have been at- tracted by the prospect of a ‘‘good time was had by all."" As a curious sidelight Mr. Marks, Judge Davis and Justice Greenbaum of the Appellate Divi- sion, who was graduated in '72, now are neighbors, occupying Nos. 4, 6 and 2 East 94th Street, respectively. Samuel An incident recalled more, particu- larly by older men funeral held by the students in 1866, when the name was changed from the New York Free Academy to its present City College of New York. Un- der the leadership of the late Edward M, Shepard and R. R., Bowker, more is the mock than 600 students marched up Fifth Avenue from the Worth Monument to the strains of funeral marches. ‘ Those were the days of torchlight Parades and, like a Ku Klux Klan, the students marched around the Bry- ant reservoir, where the Public Li- brary now stands. They then re- turned to the college and buried the little casket in the college turf and then joyfully proclaimed the birth of the new C. C. N. Y. At that time there was little but green fields above 23d Street. These same early students relate with a great deal of relish the debut of Christine Nilson, to Jenny Lind, at the Academy of Mustc. The students were so enthralled by her singing that they took the horses successor out of her carriage and pulled her to the home of Prof. R. Ogden Dore- mus, of the college and President of the Philharmonic Society. Prof. Do- remus was the “Maceanas of New York,” and all the old stars, includ- ing Ole Bull, made their home with The Philharmonic used to serenade him from his lawn, and the him. students frequently called upon him, for he always repaid their attention with lavish gifts of rare, imported wines. He did this the night of the Nilson affair. Mr. Marks learned his mathematics in an interesting way. He never could understand why one dividea by infinity was nothing, and when he explained his disbelief to his old pro- ‘fessor, the latter said, “Mr, Marks, leave the room.” The future “first citizen of Manhattan" meekly obeyed Just as he crossed the threshold the volce that bade him leave ordered him to his seat. This command also was obeyed, “Now better?"" do you understand it any the youthful mathematician —. mus. (2) was asked. Feeling he was being he didn’t. Whereupon his professor explained \ how, by traversing the distance from the board to the door the student had performed an infinite number of divi- sions until there was no distance left. Marks learned that lesson so well that injlater years he was able to divide the twenty-four hours in the day so finely that on the last Sun- day in April there are only twenty- three hours and on the last Sunday in bullied, Mr, Marks said Mr. September there are twenty-five. A classmate of Mr. the Journal of Commerce. this: “Minny a toime a-and oft Hey ye cloimbed up th’ wa-a-als 'n bathilmints,"" In later years, as the college grew The students were so en- thralled by Christine Nillson’s singing that they took the horses out of her carriage and pulled her to the home of Prof. Dore- Marks who added greatly to the amusement of the day was James Luby, editor of many papers in this city and now head of Luby's recitations of Shakespeare with a strong Irish brogwe ran something like THE EVENING mateemeniints - —_ WORLD, SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1922. i in numbers and the territory around 284 Street and Lexington Avenue grew more congested, college [ife tamed down somewhat. Then the students went up to Morningside Heights, and by @ curious coincidence almost to the plot on which the present buildings stand, to play, foot- ball. The debates which raged in the seventies and eighties began to give way in .the nineties to plays. James K. Hackett; ‘91, founder of the New York College Dra- matio Club, had the leading roles in a number of plays, and with him was Arthur Guiterman, the poet, almost invariably ¢ast as a woman. Hackett, however, had previously es- tablished @ strong reputation as an athlete. ‘The list of those most prominent tn New York affairs in the past fifty years reads like an alumni register of €. C. N. ¥. Besides those men- tioned there have been Bernard M. Baruch, Abraham Elkus, Henry Mor- genthau, Gen. George W. Goethals, at one time nearly the whole Supreme Court of the State and prominent phy- sicians and teachers. In 1906, when the college moved from the old 28d Street building, it was estimated that 24,000 had been given free collegiate training since the old halls were opened in 1849, The first enrolment was 143 boys picked from the ward and public schools. The present buildings are built out of the rock on which they stand at 188th Street and Convent Avenue From their imposing position on the edge of the huge bluff that looks northeastward over Bronx and Long Island they present as fine an example of English collegiate architecture as there is in the country. There four main buldings and an under graduate body of 19,000, the largest are . Celebrates 75! Birthday. in the United States. | ee ae The seventy-fifth anniversary will rhe is ri St ea be all next week, with May 7th the date of especial observance. It was on May 7, 1847, that the Legislature authorized the founding of the New York Free Academy, which was ap- Proved, In a judicial election in June, 19,455 to 3,409, fe 1 TOWN SEN 6 FARRIS HALL LEWISOHN STADIUM wy xa i BERT HAY pas Sidney E. Mezes, ti President of City College CLEP — wNason 6 Bs Teel BEE DS G) ay A Q Airplane View of City College Showing All the New Buildings. taee ef UHH TE t Arthur Guiterman, the poet, was almost invariably cast as a woman in the Dra- matic Club’s plays, James K. Hackett, founder of { e the College Dramatic Club, played the leading roles. Prof, Robert Ogden Doremus, First President of the New York Philharmonic Society. Uriginal City College Building Called “Old Dutch Gables,” and Occupied Until © 1906—23d Stxcet and Lexington Avenue. ‘ g